Felix Otero embraces his 7-year-old daughter, Destiny, on the playground of East Gate Kids Early Learning Center in Albuquerque on May 3. Otero is receiving free child care under New Mexico’s expanded child care assistance program. (Chancey Bush/Albuquerque Journal)
When Felix Otero first got custody of his young daughter, Destiny, about two years ago, he didn't have family around to watch her while he went to work. He would bring her to Big O Tires where he is a service manager, and she would hang out in the office during his shift. But Destiny would often wander out looking for him and Otero realized he had to come up with another plan. He tried four different child care centers – one he felt wasn't mindful enough of her special needs since she has spina bifida, another was down in the South Valley and had them waking up at 3 or 4 a.m. to commute from the other side of town – before finding East Gate Kids Early Learning Center. It cost $780 a month but Otero felt it was worth it. "I just started paying and didn't have much food in the house, didn't have much money for her," Otero recalled. "Like when she would get out of day care ... and was 'Daddy, I'm hungry.' I'd be like, 'Yeah, OK, let's get something to eat.' I'd get her like a burger and a drink and I wouldn't eat anything. I'd eat, like, noodles at home. It was pretty rough." In July 2021, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced an expansion of the income eligibility levels to qualify for the state's child care assistance program. The Lujan Grisham administration then
